Pete Stark: “when Congress considered NAFTA, members of this committee received the unqualified assurance form Ambassador Kantor that…”

“when Congress considered NAFTA, members of this committee received the unqualified assurance form Ambassador Kantor that U.S. environmental laws and standards would not be lowered if Congress approved the agreement. Well--here we are--about to do just that as we consider the Gilcrest bill and its changes to the dolphin-safe label. A brief explanation of the fishing techniques of the Mexicans--our trading partner pushing for the change in law--might help the Members understand what is at stake here. Schools of large yellow fin tuna swim beneath schools of dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The dolphin schools--often 400-500 animals--are chased at high speeds by helicopter and speed boats for periods of 30 minutes to several hours. When the dolphins become too exhausted to swim, encircling nets are dropped around the dolphins and the tuna. Many dolphins become trapped in the nets and drown. Others die from injury of extreme exhaustion. After an outcry from Americans, many of them school children, U.S. tuna companies announced in 1990 that they would not buy tuna caught while harming dolphins. The U.S. tuna fleets moved to the waters of the western Pacific nations where the tuna do not swim with the dolphins. The Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act, 1990, codified that tuna harvested with large-scale nets is not dolphin-safe. H.R. 408 lowers our labeling standards and misleads the American people.”